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Our SL mini arrived today. Very impressed with the ease of a 10 minute set up including PW and latest updates. I think this will do the trick for us as far as comm goes. It even fits down in my Osprey Day Lite pack. Waiting on the Stiker protective case which is scheduled for delivery this sat. I will post up more user info once we get back on the road and put this tech to use. SpaceX we have a Starlink lift off!! 😊 Front yard initial set up. The mini fits easily in my Osprey Daylite plus pack.

Some recent and random shots of Monument Valley, Canyonlands, and Arches... Above - the mittens at MV... D had to talk to a guy about a horse... Monuments everywhere... Don't lose the Knucklehead! Colorado River way down there... Arches are everywhere.... Enjoy your adventure to the Great Southwest! Cheers!

I didn't, thus the next three trucks: 1500-->2500-->3500.

Other than this just being a huge undertaking, any other comments? Here is our plan so far... 2 days to travel from FL To San Antonio 3 days in San Antonio Travel day 10 days in Sedona (Dead Horse Ranch SP) 4 days @ Grand Canyon South Rim 2 days in St. George (Sand Hollow SP) 7 days in Zion 6 days in Kodachrome SP (Bryce Canyon NP) 4 days in Escalante Petrified Forest 4 days in Torrey (Capitol Reef NP et al) 7 days in Moab (Dead Horse Point SP, Arches NP , Canyonlands NP, et al) 7 days in Mexican Hat (Goosenecks SP, Monument Valley, et al) a week to head home....

Don't know Kodachrome. Loved out visit to Dead Horse and wish we would have camped there. Do that for sure! I agree with @SeaDawg, where she wrote, "Zion is beautiful. So is Bryce. Don't know if I'd be up for a week at each." I would spend a week in St George area, so many things to do and we've made it an annual trip for us. You are a close commute to Zion. April is better than later, as it will get more and more crowded. The shuttle system gets full and you can wait at some stops for a while. For me 2 days at Zion is enough due to the crowds. Separately I suggest camping somewhere up between Bryce and Capital Reef NP, weather permitting. This is all 8000+ FT elevation. Leaving Zion you can drive Hwy 9 east, the Mount Carmel Highway for more great views. Then take Hwy 89 N to Bryce. So many options!

Just brought her home, new to us 2017 Elite II. Hull 207. We are so excited to be here and to be the proud new owners of this beauty! We have a Casita independence which we will be selling. We live in NH. We both retired in the past few years and want to explore our amazing United States while we are still in our go go years. We are looking forward to learning about the Ollie and enjoying adventures on the road.

We travel with a full fresh tank.

@aaronorange; We always top off at home prior to departing. We have filtered and conditioned well water from our property and the Casablanca really likes it. No build-up in Pex and at points of usage. We also carry 2 x 6-Gal water jugs filled with house H2O in the TV and use the boondock water pump mode as needed - on short 3 - 5 day trips we do not connect to water bibs. FYI... Hope this helps out. Cheers!

@ScubaRx Looks like the same site! How’d you carry all your tools in that jeep?

A shot from the Dunes showing the Airstream.

Our site at Piñon Flats fit our trailer fine. There was a 25’ Airstream two sites away.

This phrase caught my eye. If the LP line is in the area of the fridge that vents ONLY outside, then this is OK not best. I've read some about this fridge needing an interior vent, then not OK at all. Best installation would be to remove the gas line T-coupling down at the frame below the cabin and replace it with a straight coupling. This way there is absolutely no chance of LP leak into the cabin interior.

We have stayed at Dead Horse SP a number of times and agree that it provides good access to all the local sites to see. Sedona is an easy drive. We camped on Zion for a week. If you are there over a weekend I recommend you stay on the park. Traffic getting into the park on the weekend was ridiculous, backed up for miles. We were there in Janyary and in the off season you can drive anywhere on the park that is open. During the high season you have to take a bus to most sites. Not sure what off season dates are. There’s a nice USFS campground near Bryce, Red Canyon campground. No reservations. We arrived around noon and had a choice of campsites, all pretty nice. No hookups but a very well maintained campground with great views. There’s a nice BLM campground in between Canyonlands and Arches, Horsethief CG. It’s closer to Canyonlands but easy access to Moab and Arches too. Good luck! Mike

LOL. I'm sure we will not "see all that". I know we are risking some snow closures by going early. But it maximizes our time with the grandkids back in FL. Anyway, I'm willing to trade that risk for avoiding the summer crush. I'd be very happy spending a week or so in 4 or five different spots, hiking what we can and just ogling the rest. The parking lot in Zion is enough to make my heart sing. 😍 Our idea at the moment is something like this: Take about a week to get from FL to Sedona Sedona (Dead Horse Ranch SP) ~1week Grand Canyon South Rim ~3days (we've been there once before) Zion ~1 week - maybe half in the park and half with full hook ups in Springdale Some part of Bryce/Grand Escalante ~1week (no idea where) Moab (Dead Horse Point SP??) ~1week Canyonland and Arches Start home via Monument Valley and Gila.... Another week to get back east

We've stayed 2 times at Deadhorse Ranch for a week in the fall. It's one of our favorite places to go as there are so many things to do and see within a short drive. The town of Cottonwood has a historic old-town with many tasting rooms and food offerings. Some ideas in < 15 min drive include: Tuzigoot Natl Monument Historic Jerome (Mining town) Verde Canyon Railroad Tour Old Town Cottonwood Wineries & Tasting Rooms including the local wine university. Day trip to Sedona is about an 45min. easy drive. You can see some of our photo's of the campground and area here: Site 8 - Deadhorse Ranch SP Tuzigoot Nat'l Monument Jerome State Historical Museum Verde Canyon RR Tour in Clarkdale about 15 min from campground

Bulldog shocks are a bit beefier and look like they are well made. Easy swap. Leaf springs look good, still on the fence about upgrading to the Alcan 5 leaf springs. Clips were loose on both springs on the right. Center bolt nut on the left EZ flex was loose and about to fall off. All of the Monroe shocks seemed to be in good working order just rusty. Future plans include the ALCAN highway so trying to get everything done now. New tires in the morning. https://www.4statetrucks.com/bulldog-hd-shock-absorber-replaces-555001-19-050000007 Wildpeak H/T02 LT225/75R16 E/10PLY BSW *** Now back to torquing the shocks so that the cushion is the same diameter as the metal retainer but not larger. ***

We decided to replace our sewer hose with a Lippert Cam Lock version. They are expensive but have a nice design that includes a smooth interior and that improves flow. I used the honey pot option so I wouldn’t have to modify the interlocking connection on the Oliver. I purchased the primary hose, a coupler, and the honey pot cable for the same functionality. I also received an adapter that can be used to permanently modify the Oliver, but don’t anticipate ever using it. I did purchase the hose adapter to convert the honey pot hose to allow a garden hose connection as we only dump grey water and want to be able to dump to a container for longer stays where we don’t have sewer hookups at the campsite. I have attached a video. IMG_0349.mov

Have done it both ways, full and partially full, which depends on my attitude at the time of departure, how long will the trip be and whether its a solo trip or if wife is coming along. Regardless we always carry two BPA free water jugs that are filled for drinking and cooking water. Never drink from the holding tanks which is only used for cleaning dishes and people.

We have 10" mattresses from Brooklyn Bedding: Dreamfoam Essential - RV (rvmattress.com) Ours are very comfortable and heavy too. Soon, we will cut a radius in one corner, so they will fit better, not being jammed in one corner. Because they are tall mattresses, the standard twin fitted sheet works well due to the extra height. Chris is very much about a neat made bed. She uses Bed Sheet Straps the mattress protector and fitted sheets, something like these: Amazon.com: Gorilla Grip Bed Sheet Straps, Adjustable Elastic Fasteners with Metal Clips, Keep in Place Fitted Bedding Holder, Easy Install Suspenders Mattresses, Firm Tight Accessories, 4 Pack White : Home & Kitchen

Try drawing with a pencil and use the watercolors to fill in the spaces.

While camping on a 3 1/2 week trip our curbside Dometic awning started acting up. It would only open about 2 feet and refused to open any farther. After numerous resets as per manual and several conversations with Oliver support we had to take our Elite II #650 to a Dometic repair shop. We initially believed that the relay had quit working which required access to the relay through the on/off tabs right inside the door. This ended up not being the issue. After more investigation the awning had jumped track and would only move 1 to 2 feet.. After a 3 hour charge we are good to go. When investigation this issue on the forum we had not found any other awnings that had had this problem. So this is a little input incase someone runs across this issue. I guess I should have climbed up and tried to see if track was an issue, but after resets performed in manual and on Dometic web pages, the motor would not jog after performing reset instructions. With my bad knees I tend to let others seek out issues not on ground level. Good luck and happy camping

Oh, it finally got here! I've done a lot of prep work but could not start many tasks until I could see it in person. It does have the dual DC terminals, so no extra buses for me. Each will have 12VDC in from the batteries and 12VDC out to the Oliver buses, not extra complications. The beast is heavy and VERY much top heavy. The center of weight is 8" from the top on a 22.5" chassis. I need to work my mounting platform accordingly. I also received the VE.Bus Smart Dongle which is the Bluetooth control interface. No Cerbo and no screen display for me, at least for now. I'm working this week and next, so this will take a while. Like I mentioned before, I will start a build thread after I get a bit done. It's going to be fun!

This is most likely cause. Is HDMI connected to the TV? Next step, can the Furrion play a CD, sound coming from the 4 speakers. If so, the player is likely fine and the HDMI signal not getting to TV.

@Mike and Carol Your pics look remotely familiar. These were shot in 2008...

Here's my 2 cents... I just replaced all shocks with the Monroe 555001s. I did so as a first step in trying to figure out the cause of sudden scalloping of both fronts tires. One of the tires was severe enough to warrant exchange with our new spare. As per Scuba Rx, one of the Monroe cushions indeed needed to be compressed to get 1 of the shocks to fit. I'm happy with ease of installation and time will tell if the shocks were the cause. Tires were removed to facilitate installation. Hull 996, picked up new in Jan 2022 and now with over 41,000 miles, has had its share of highway hard knocks, most of which surprisingly occurred on very infrequent use of interstates. The included photos show one of the shock "stems" bent and both front shock shafts were indeed sheared. The other 2 rear shocks were intact, though badly worn. Since both front shock shafts were sheared and only the front tires showed unusual wear I suppose they were the cause. The 2nd picture shows the shaft was stuck in and I pulled it out with pliers. John

Good advice posted above! We had an older Furrion unit (Hull #75) when the Furrion's DVD player starter acting up. Ours was out of warranty. Eventually found an RV surplus dealer on Ebay that had an exact replacement new unit on the shelf.

There is a kit available to rebuild the diaphragm pumps for Shur-Flo. It a very straightforward rebuild and worth it if the pump motor is working. The part is very compact and is good to have in the vehicle if you don’t travel with a spare.

Thanks John-I talked to Mike at Oliver and the fit is not exact-some fiberglass work would be required and a platform built to support it. We are kind of in a pickle because Norcold discontinued the model and does not have any replacement parts. Looking at the same model on ebay, might go with that. Wish us luck!

Arches NP has an online reservation system. We could only reserve a 4PM entrance, which worked out fine as the sun was softer and the day was nice cooling off. Drove all the roads and made two short hikes to Landscape and Delicate Arches. Left after 7PM to enjoy a late dinner at Dewey's in Moab. Next door is the Moab Diner. Had great breakfasts there a couple mornings!

We’ve heard both are great places to camp. You need to make reservations early, we were never able to get in even checking availability weeks in advance. Goblin State Park is another popular park, we tried there, too and it was full.

Totally doable. And, you'll see a lot. At the risk of offending everyone from the regions in between, just drive til you get to Arizona, as long a day's drive as you can tolerate. You can easily make it in less than a week, though Texas seems to never end... It's just so huge. 20 years ago, we did an rv trip from Orlando via Houston to Las Vegas, with two teen girls. Sedona was our very favorite stop. Actually, the teen girls were ready to mutiny, after the late May/early June heat of Texas and the Arizona desert. Sedona was a welcome two night reprieve. Went to Sliding Rock. Then, we went to lake Powell, and rented a boat. Got temporarily lost. Made it out fine. 😀 Zion is beautiful. So is Bryce. Don't know if I'd be up for a week at each. We went to the Arches on another trip. Magnificent. Don't try to go on a holiday weekend, as we did. We wound up "camping" at a Walmart a distance away, overnight. Everything was booked. Bear in mind, my husband is the rock/desert guy. I'm more in love with trees/green/water. In Sedona, we stayed at an rv park a few miles from Sliding Rock. Probably Rancho Sedona. It was cool, shaded, and a creek. It was heaven, after days in the hot desert. And, I think you are wise to avoid the summer crush.

Wow, that's a lot. Given we are nearby, it took us 3 April-May trips to see all that! April 2022, we visited Mesa Verde, Canyonlands and Arches. Spent too much time in Moab (more for young people in Jeeps) and should have gone through Telluride and Ouray on the way instead (future trip). Spring 2023 we went to St. George Utah, visited Zion and Bryce Canyon. St George is a great town, and we went back this year and camped Snow Canyon and since the weather was hot headed north to Cedar City and made it to the viewpoint at Cedar Breaks. What a climb from Parowan to the top! It can be extremely windy out here during April-May, so be ready for that. Some evenings it's hard to light the grill or fire ring. Also, some roads and locations are still closed for the season. For example, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and even the road to it opens May 15th. Most of the Utah parks are open in April, but you cannot do The Narrows of Zion (water flow to high) and hiking at Bryce would be on snow-packed trails. Zion is low elevation and April is good there. But at the north end of Zion, the road to Kolob Canyons will be closed for snow. Hope this helps. You trip looks like the trip of a lifetime! 😂

LOL. Neither do I. That's why I started this thread. Actually, Sedona is just going to be our first big stop on a 2-month trip centering around Utah's big 5. We will probably only go into the actual city of Sedona for a change of pace or bad weather. Most of our time will be spent hiking through the beautiful surrounding landscapes. And the suggestions you made will now be added to that list. TYVM

We have had the same issue on several of our cabinet doors as well. Ditto the advice above about using Blue Loctite (#243) or equivalent on the threads. I also noticed that the machine screws holding the doors to the hinges only engage with a few turns of the threads. I don't know if this is the same on all model years or not. I changed out the machine screws to a slightly longer one that engages more threads (and thus the Loctite thread locker *should* perform better). The jury is still out on this as I've only recently made this change. OEM screw size: M3-0.50 x 6mm long, stainless steel, Phillips truss head Replacement screw size: M3-0.50 x 8mm long, 18-8 stainless steel, Phillips truss head, with an oversized M3 18-8 stainless steel washer under the head. I ordered mine from McMaster-Carr, but you can likely find smaller or per-unit quantities from another supplier. M3-0.50 x 8mm Phillips truss head Screws: https://www.mcmaster.com/92467A119 Oversize M3 washers (9mm OD): https://www.mcmaster.com/91116A120

OMG! How are you getting from Florida all the way to Sedona, AZ? I almost do not know where to start! 🤣 You're staying at the best park near Sedona. The City of Sedona has created the Red Rock Pass that you need to buy to even drive down any dirt road within 20 miles. The city is not camping friendly, again this park is the best place within 30 minutes of Sedona and not much else up there to camp. I love everything Arizona, but only go to Sedona when out-of-town friends visit. Not being into overpriced art and things spiritual, it's not for me, but my son being religious and spiritual goes there monthly to hike and meditate. It is a special place, but the tourists, the crowds, the cheap stores and nowhere to park keeps me from more than an occasional visit. We can drive to Sedona in one hour traveling up Hwy 89A over Mingus Mountain, the best part of the trip! Cathedral Rock is my favorite Sedona site. It's south of town on Hwy 179. You cannot miss it coming off I-17. However, we always visit from the backside (of Hwy 89A) where there is nobody but us most of the time (see our pics which is the backside view). I love this place, would not drive to Sedona without stopping here again! Suggestions yes, spend more time in Cottonwood and Clarkdale. Book the Verde Canyon Railroad (Verde Canyon Railroad | Train Ride in Clarkdale Arizona (verdecanyonrr.com)) for a train excursion up to Perkinsville AZ, the head waters of the grand Verde River and back (we drive to Perkinsville often from our home). I love the little town of Cornville. Eat lunch there and take in some town views along Oak Creek (very short drive). Don't let the name get you, what a cute town! BTW, the best drive in ALL of Arizona is Hwy 89A heading north out of Sedona towards Flagstaff. This is the Oak Creek Canyon, just amazing. During April everything should be in bloom, and the water will be running strong. The birds are amazing, with thousands of butterflies everywhere if your timing is right! Drive up the mountain to Jerome! What was the largest copper mine in history, booming 100 years ago and a cute cliffside town with great local restaurants and shops (no chains, more bikers than other tourists). If you want to climb Mingus Mountain, on the same road another 600+ higher, you could then drive the beautiful descent down to Prescott Valley! Stop by and see us for an overnight. Fill your tank with mountain fresh water and plug into 30A service. You are certainly welcome. Great drives, hikes, restaurants, real stores and the famous Whiskey Row for drinks and dinner. You can camp anywhere in the Prescott NF and BLM lands. We have Thumb Butte and the Granite Mountain Wilderness. Prescott was founded in the 1860s by the Union Army as the capital of the Arizona Territory (in competition the Confederates founded Tucson). A day trip to Payson is an amazing drive... But you only have a week! If you like, you can pull your Oliver on every road I have mentioned. Have an amazing trip! 😂

Following. Our Victron MPII just arrived, along with all of the other Victron equipment. Install to commence next week. Like others, the power assist mode was the primary driver. I found when running on generator power (dual Honda EU2200i) paralleled and in ECO mode, the generators could not start our Houghton heat pump. So I had to run them with ECO mode off all the time. I'm hoping that with power assist from the Victron, I can run the Honda's in ECO mode and still start the Houghton. Considered adding soft start too, but will wait and see if the power assist works as advertised.